


Interpersonal Dynamics

by thornsilver



Category: Wolf's Rain
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-16 16:54:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16957887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thornsilver/pseuds/thornsilver
Summary: The packmates settle down.





	Interpersonal Dynamics

**Author's Note:**

> This work was originally posted to my LJ.

Kiba sniffed his piece of meat suspiciously. It didn’t smell particularly fresh, but neither did it smell dangerously putrid. Of course, it had been lifted from somebody by Hige, and he had much better nose for things like that. Personally, Kiba would have rather had a rat. They were fresh.

When Kiba unfocused his eyes just the right way, he could see a ginger-headed young man chewing determinately next to him, instead of the ginger-haired wolf. He hated to waste energy pretending to be human, but they have taken shelter from the snowstorm outside in an abandoned building, and there were humans here, doing much the same thing. Sometimes Kiba wondered if the other wolves, having lived so long around humans, had fewer problems maintaining the illusion, but asking would have shown vulnerability, and this pack was unstable enough as it was.

Hige and Toboe brought in their own problems, since neither of them was particularly comfortable in the long stretches of wilderness they had to navigate, and Toboe was way too trusting and nice for Kiba’s peace of mind. And then there was Kiba's personal silver-furred pain in the neck. He kept expecting that Tsume will either get fed up and walk away, or they will get in an out and out fight for dominance. Instead, Tsume stayed, grumbling about everything and being about as friendly as human with a hangover. Kiba thought that Tsume actually missed being in a pack. That would explain the human gang he was running with. They were sort of like a pack, right?

Right now Tsume had trapped Toboe in a corner and was lecturing him on something. The runt looked both confused and pleased, as he always did near Tsume. When will the older wolf bow to the inevitable? Kiba was sure it will calm him considerably.

"So.." Hige mumbled, then swallowed a piece and tried again. "So, what's with the Ever-Growly One?"

Kiba twitched his ear distractedly as his attention was drawn to Tsume's corner. One of the human squatters made his unsteady way to the pair of wolves. His scent was heavily flavored with alcohol fumes.

Kiba had spent enough time among humans to know that that smelled like trouble, so he swallowed the remainder of his meal as soon as possible, getting ready to intervene when Tsume lost it. Or maybe preparing to run, because Tsume was irritable enough right now to just tear the two legged fool's throat out.

"Pretty boy..." slurred the interloper. "Pretty..."

Kiba could just see what it looked like through human eyes--a tough scarred guy dressed in leather trapping a petite boy against a wall. He could see Toboe's human illusion go bright red as he caught the scent of the man. He could also see Tsume's avatar turn and look at the interloper. Just look. He didn't even bother to growl. The human backpedaled so quickly, he almost left visible skid marks.

Then those yellow eyes traveled the length of the room checking for other threats and met Kiba's own. They stared at each other for what seemed like forever, but Tsume looked away first, returning his attention to still embarrassed Toboe. Kiba took the victory, but his disquiet did not go away. This much tension just wasn't good for a pack.

***

He just never fucking quit. There was always a nose in his ear, or at his flank, a tongue licking at his muzzle. He would usually wake up with his side against the runt, even though he deliberately went to sleep away from the others. He snapped at the younger wolf and tried to chase him away, yet Toboe seemed undaunted. Kiba noticed of course, the bastard. While Hige still smelled confused and curious, Kiba's scent of obsessive determination was usually woven with amusement these days.

Every day Tsume asked himself what the fuck was he doing in this ragtag pack, and yet every day he continued on this pointless trek. So what if he could smell the Lunar Flower? He didn't believe in the stories of Paradise.

He managed to cut himself on a rock today. Careless. The wound wasn't even slowing him down all that much, but the moon was dark, and so he will have to deal with it for a couple of days. Of course Toboe insisted on licking it. He let him do it too. It took less energy to do that than to fight a hopeless battle against the young wolf's determination. Besides, he needed to think.

He knew where it was going, even if Toboe didn't. Unlike the runt he had been a part of a pack, too long ago to even bother remembering. Apparently some of Toboe's wolf instincts worked better than others. Still, did he want this? This level of involvement with somebody who couldn't even bring down a bird without killing it by *accident*? A wolf who wanted to be a dog?

Tsume growled half-heartedly as Toboe's tongue scraped painfully. Sometimes he missed living among humans. He didn't have to worry about expectations, either theirs, or his own.

Toboe whined and crawled up to his muzzle to lick it. Shit. He often wished he’d never met the other wolves.

***

Kiba was woken by a wet nose poking in his ear.

"Hige!"

The other wolf ignored his warning growl with distinct aplomb. Of course by then Kiba had noticed what else was going on. It was rather difficult not to. Even though Tsume and Toboe were being surprisingly quiet, the scent of lust was heavy in the air.

"He is mounting him? Why is he doing that?"

Moon save him from human-raised wolves. He wished the other pair went elsewhere for this. He could tell that Hige was enjoying the situation way too much.

"Haven't you ever lived with a pack?"

"Nope." Hige seemed to have settled his muzzle on Kiba's shoulder permanently. For a wolf who liked to eat that much, it was surprisingly skinny. "It was just me, mom, and sibs. And then I came back from exploring one day and... I must have been as old as Toboe then. Why?"

"Do you know anything about normal packs?"

"I looked up some stuff, before they banned all info on wolves. But those were written by humans. And what do you mean, "normal" packs?"

Kiba batted his head at Hibe's muzzle, making him move it. Tsume stopped moving and was just standing over Toboe, who kept trying to lick his muzzle.

"A normal pack would have a mating pair of alphas, " and how embarrassing was it explain this to *another wolf*?--"And some lower rank wolves as well. Except they don't get to mate."

"What, no sex?"

"You can have sex without mating." Honestly. Even Kiba knew that humans did that all the time, and Hige had spent his life living among them. He could almost *hear* Hige's mind working.

"So, aren't you Alpha here?" Kiba growled. He couldn't help himself. He was Alpha. Of course he was Alpha. He was the one who chose where they ran.

"I don't want Toboe." And he *really* didn't want to get into it with Tsume over somebody he held no interest in. Especially since Toboe spent so much time around Tsume, he was starting to smell a little like him.

"Who do you want then?" And a playful muzzle was in his ear. Again. "Want to hump me?"

Kiba turned and nipped the ginger-haired wolf on the flank hard enough to make him yelp.

"Go to sleep. We have long way to go tomorrow." He also didn't need Hige getting any ideas.

On the other side of the clearing, Tsume and Toboe were already drowsing. Thankfully, Hige listened this time, and soon a warm flank was against his own, as the younger wolf yawned and settled for the day. Kiba drew in the sweet scent of the Lunar Flower, letting it calm him. Being in the pack... it was nice. Even in one so screwed up as theirs was. He drifted almost contentedly into the land of dreams, where he ran endlessly under a full moon, followed by three swift figures.


End file.
